plus 3, A Show of Support - Workforce Management |
- A Show of Support - Workforce Management
- Cleaning for a Reason: A Support Service for Women in Cancer Treatment - HealthCentral.com
- Peripheral Neuropathy options - HealthCentral.com
- Tell HER2 - StarPhoenix
| A Show of Support - Workforce Management Posted: 31 Jan 2010 11:02 AM PST Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Cleaning for a Reason: A Support Service for Women in Cancer Treatment - HealthCentral.com Posted: 31 Jan 2010 11:38 AM PST
When I was in cancer treatment, I had many people say, "Let me know how I can help." Sometimes I asked for a ride to the doctor, but most of the time I was too set on being independent to ask. But I would have never asked for what I needed most—someone to clean my bathroom! You have to know a person pretty well to ask him or her to scrub your toilet, and the two or three people in the whole world I might have actually shared that wish with lived a thousand miles away. My husband and son are both good housecleaners, and they did their best, but they were also cooking, washing dishes, taking me to doctor's appointments while trying to do their own work and school tasks. For the first part of my cancer treatment, walking to the mailbox was a major effort, and for the second part, I was back at work teaching middle school English. I came home every afternoon and went straight to bed. For most people undergoing cancer treatment, something has to go, and it's often the cleaning—just at a time when chemotherapy makes them more vulnerable to germs—just at a time when they are spending more time at home with plenty of time to look at the dust and cobwebs. Recently I heard about a non-profit group that would have been the perfect solution for my family: Cleaning for a Reason. Cleaning for a Reason is a non-profit foundation based near Dallas, Texas, founded to help women in cancer treatment with their house cleaning. They will match you with a local professional cleaning service for one free cleaning a month for four months. The residential cleaning services are insured and bonded and are giving back to their communities by agreeing to add two patients at a time to their regular client load for free. It's a great idea. The Cleaning for a Reason Foundation has one paid full-time staff member who makes the matches and keeps the paperwork between the cleaning volunteers and the patients who need help, so it is a low overhead venture. If there is a cleaning service in your area working with Cleaning for a Reason, you fill out an application. If they can match you with a service, you send a note from your doctor verifying that you are indeed in cancer treatment. However, your medical records are not needed, so your privacy is respected. One drawback, of course, is the requests outstrip the supply of volunteers. The Cleaning for a Reason website says. "Naturally, as with any non-profit organization, the demand far exceeds our ability to serve but we attempt to match as many patients as possible who go through our application process. Since our maid services are businesses, they schedule you within their normal paying customers. Sometimes our maid services are handling the maximum amount of patients already and we have to inform you that they are full." Cleaning for a Reason is actively recruiting more cleaning services and adds 25-35 new partners a month. The cleaning service gains good will in the community and perhaps some new paying clients after the four free cleanings. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Peripheral Neuropathy options - HealthCentral.com Posted: 31 Jan 2010 09:29 AM PST Writer, mother, wife, volunteer, and survivor: PJ Hamel joins the... Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Posted: 31 Jan 2010 10:48 AM PST When Lise Paquet got the news, she was shocked. She didn't have a family history of cancer, and she didn't feel sick. But four years ago, the Ottawa statistics professor was told she had HER2-positive, an aggressive form of breast cancer. HER2 is short for human epidermal growth receptor-2, a protein that sits on the surface of cells in breast tissue. Too much HER2 causes the cells to grow uncontrollably and quickly form cancerous tumours. Once the diagnosis started to sink in and treatment began, Paquet launched her own strategy for combatting the disease. "The first thing was to realize that this cancer wanted me to do certain things that would make it thrive -- like feel sad and act sick," Paquet says. "I decided I would give the cancer the exact opposite." Using her own method of positive thinking, Paquet began to fill her days with the things she loved. A trip to the hospital became "a day at the spa," with Paquet dressing up and bringing classical music to listen to. Her story is inspiring -- especially when Paquet reveals she's been cancer-free for two years. At 55, Paquet is not exactly the model of a young cancer survivor. But her story of personal empowerment through cancer treatment got the attention of her oncologist, who suggested she become involved with a new program for HER2-positive women -- TellHer2.ca. It was launched last week by Rethink Breast Cancer, a charity focused on education and support for young people with breast cancer. Rethink spokeswoman Alison Gordon says HER2-positive women need to hear Paquet's story. She says her group chose to focus on this form of breast cancer because many people feel HER2-positive is a death sentence, despite the fact that drugs, surgery and other treatments have kept many women alive. But it's easy to see why HER2 is so feared: In a study last year at the University of Texas, women with early stage HER2-positive tumours were reported to have a 23-per-cent survival rate, compared with 90 per cent for breast cancer patients who do not test positive for the protein. TellHer2.ca aims to create a community of HER2-positive women by using social media methods of popular sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Gordon says Rethink asked young women what they wanted, and, over and over again, came the request for accessible arenas that gave them a chance to connect with other young cancer patients. She says the website has two goals: Inject hope in a population discouraged by the HER2-positive prognosis, and provide a forum for younger women looking to discuss the unique challenges they face. While the drug Herceptin has increased the survival rate for HER2-positive women, radiation, chemotherapy and mastectomy treatments can change a woman -- physically and psychologically -- forever. Paquet lost all her hair and had a lumpectomy in the course of her treatment. Gordon says these changes affect the way a person feels about everything from their sexuality to their career prospects, and that connecting with others who know what the experience is like can be comforting. "Women have told us that sharing their story is really cathartic," Gordon says, "because it's not ballooning inside of you." At TellHer2.ca, women can upload videos, write their stories in text, or use photographs to describe their struggles -- and accomplishments. Visitors can even search by tags or labels attached to entries: age, location and feelings such as anger are among the choices. While the site is not restricted to younger women, Gordon says it appeals to them because it allows them to connect without spending extra time in hospitals. The opportunity to contribute to the site appealed to Paquet because, throughout the treatment, writing was a way to clear her head. She also wanted women to know that even a HER2-positive diagnosis can be an occasion of growth. Paquet says her experience with breast cancer taught her to enjoy each day. "Sure, I wish it did not happen, but since it has let's make the best of it. We can't start dying before it is time." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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